Before Browncoats appear at our offices with torches and pitchforks, let us just say that yes, we are huge, huge fans of “Firefly”. It’s one of the best TV series in recent years, and a testament to the skill of Joss Whedon.

But also that if it got past season one, it probably would have turned into a total disaster.

As nerds, we tend to cling to “What Might Have Been” simply because it’s in our nature: we love to ask “what if?!” The problem is we generally approach “What If” from the whole “What if this were totally awesome” standpoint instead of the more realistic “What if this had been hijacked by corporate interests” standpoint.

So here are five reasons “Firefly” stayed good by getting gone.

#5) Any Franchise That Stays On Long Enough Chokes

Ask a Star Wars fan how they feel about the prequels. Or a Star Trek fan how they feel about “Voyager” or “Enterprise”. Or a Buffy fan how they feel about the last two seasons, or about half the episodes of “Angel”, or the new “seasons” currently running in the comics.

Sustaining any type of story over two, ten, twenty years takes time and effort, and nobody is at 100% for that entire span of time. “Firefly” delivered us a complete story that “Serenity” capped off. Imagine how you’d feel if it was still on the air, after Joss Whedon had left, Simon and Kaylee had a tragic miscarriage, and River hooked up with Jayne.

#4) If It Had Been A Success, It Would Have Been Taken Away From The Browncoats, Pronto

Major corporations are not in the television business to make us happy: they’re in it for money. And if they get even a whiff of a possibility of money, they step in, and they step in fast.

Nobody in television production will admit it, but the goal of any SF series that hits the air is to get a rabid fan base that keeps buying official merchandise and then to start killing everything that makes the show distinctive, because that makes it more appealing to the mainstream and huge conglomerates know that once you have their love, nerds will cling to a franchise forever. The dream is a series that keeps producing hits and caters enough to the mainstream to pull in that big summer money while having a huge contingent of rabid fans who buy every trinket you can officially license.

It’s the only reason “Serenity” got made: Universal thought they had another “Star Trek”. And, really, ask a Trekkie, one who grew up with it, one who loves it: watching a studio systematically dismantle everything you’ve ever loved about a movie or TV show hurts in a way that it really shouldn’t. “X raped my childhood” is a cliche at this point, and we can’t freeze our beloved franchises in amber…but did you really want to see “Firefly: The Next Generation” with Mal as an Alliance Commander? Because Universal would do it, if the money was there.

#3) All the Plotlines Got Wrapped Up

Yes, there were a few loose threads: Shepherd Book’s past, for example. But the show dropped more than enough clues to tie those up in a satisfying way. Simon and Kaylee get together, Jayne finds happiness with Vera, and most importantly, the central plotline of the series has been resolved.

Imagine a second movie where it’s just an hour-and-a-half long version of “The Train Job.” Fun it may be, but it would probably lack the resonance and depth of the show.

“Nobody in television production will admit it, but the goal of any SF series that hits the air is to get a rabid fan base that keeps buying official merchandise and then to start killing everything that makes the show distinctive, because that makes it more appealing to the mainstream and huge conglomerates know that once you have their love, nerds will cling to a franchise forever.”

I thought it was to get a series into the fourth year for a more lucrative syndication package. Maybe all that helps generate the momentum necessary to accomplish it.

#5. Probably true, but I’d take 1-2 more good seasons followed by a few crappy seasons over no seasons whatsoever. For that matter, I’d take a crappy season over no season (see: Dexter, this season).

#4. Also probably true, but like #5 this only would have happened after multiple successful seasons. “Firefly: The Next Generation” would be awesome, and you know it.

#3. If there were to be more of the series, it would have happened before Serenity. From a creative standpoint, Serenity served to provide closure to the audience, and to shut the door on future Firefly extensions.

#2 Really? You’re using ‘I don’t want to hear non-fans try to understand it’ as justification for why it’s a good thing it died prematurely? Grasping at straws, man, grasping at straws.

#1 Excellent point. I agree wholeheartedly.

Overall, I appreciate you trying to find the silver lining, but cannot agree with your conclusion. A lot of your points are a bit like saying, ‘I’m glad I didn’t get that job, because I could have gotten fired.” While that may be true, you’re missing out on the benefits of the journey. Yes, if Firefly managed to continue, there surely would have been disappointments and flops, but who knows what kind of amazing television would have happened along the way? True, we tend to cling to “What if??” but to discount the possibilities because of potential pitfalls – most several seasons out – seems excessively pessimistic.

I never really watched Buffy or Angel, so I don’t know if all of the seasons were golden, but Whedon seemed like he had a nice 3 season arc for this story what would have been nice. For once I’d like to be fortunate enough to be a fan of a show that had both the time to tell the story as the creators intended AND showrunners who knew what they were doing for the entire run.

That seems impossible in TV these days. If a show lasts long enough, it’s either going to start sucking or be cancelled before it can end properly.

Interesting. Firefly is uncommon in that despite interference from Fox, the majority of its 15 episodes are very solid. Let’s face it, it better than most first seasons of shows. However, I have always wondered whether the quality would have deteriorated over the course of five seasons.